Hennepin County Emergency Management (HCEM) will be conducting their Spring Simulated Emergency Test (SET) this Saturday May 30 from 9am till approximately 12 noon.  The test involves amateur radio operators and public safety entities sharing specifically requested information via a number of different communications pathways. 

The Richfield Radio Club members are invited and encouraged to participate.

Attached is a list of amateur radio frequencies (via an ICS205) which will be utilized for this exercise.  This includes the Richfield 444.475 repeater.    

Please pass this information along to the club members and let them know that they are welcome and frankly encouraged to check into as many of the nets as they are able.

Here is the exercise scenario:

A global pandemic (Coronavirus –SARS-CoV2) –COVID-19 has infected hundreds of thousands across the globe, killed thousands in the United States and has decimated global economies.   As hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans maintain a Government-issued ‘Stay-at-Home” order, communications infrastructure is being taxed beyond capacity.  Primary failures include an overloading of the 3-4-5G Cellular systems as well as an overloading of some local internet service providers.  Local telecom operators are also experiencing random outages due to malicious cable vandalism.  Power is stable for the time being. Due to the infectious nature of the COVID-19 virus, all communications personnel are now working remotely from their homes. No inter-personal contact is being advised as “Social Distancing” is the new normal.  The Hennepin County Emergency Operations Center is active with stable conditions and is requesting information from ARES and non-ARES amateur Radio Operators as to the status of critical infrastructure within the County and State of Minnesota and specifically the Twin Cities Metropolitan area. 

The HCEOC is requesting the following information from each operator who checks in:

Operators Current Location

Station Power Status

Internet Access and availability

Cellular / Telco Service Status

Current Weather conditions

HCEM looks forward to hearing from all those who can participate.

Regards,

Tom York- K0ZZX